I'd say this is the best 2D platformer I've ever played. The cohesive, charming storytelling with great pixel art is the cherry on top, but Celeste's brilliance is really in the mechanics and design. Madeline's moveset is involvingly technical and very deep, but it does not demand performance so much as it invites the player to master exactly as much as they need to in order to find a sense of accomplishment and reward from it.
Nearly every screen is well-considered and encourages the player to find their own version of the desired solution, incorporating whatever techniques they see fit to navigate obstacles. As the game progresses these challenges become a bit less flexible and more demanding, but Celeste never feels like it veers into overtly cruel design. The tone of the game and the speed at which it resets always gives off a feeling of friendly determination - "It's OK, you've got this," even if you have to fail a thousand times to get there. This lets the bonus content approach near-Kaizo segments of length and requirement without ever feeling mean-spirited like those games often do.
The creativity with which Celeste explores every possible facet of its control scheme, the constant novelty of new mechanics and the wonderfully satisfying audio-visual-narrative packaging that surrounds it makes for an obvious winner. What's a better analogue of the platformer genre than the process of climbing a mountain? Slow, methodical persistence and a good bit of self-trust leads to mastery. One of the greats.
Nearly every screen is well-considered and encourages the player to find their own version of the desired solution, incorporating whatever techniques they see fit to navigate obstacles. As the game progresses these challenges become a bit less flexible and more demanding, but Celeste never feels like it veers into overtly cruel design. The tone of the game and the speed at which it resets always gives off a feeling of friendly determination - "It's OK, you've got this," even if you have to fail a thousand times to get there. This lets the bonus content approach near-Kaizo segments of length and requirement without ever feeling mean-spirited like those games often do.
The creativity with which Celeste explores every possible facet of its control scheme, the constant novelty of new mechanics and the wonderfully satisfying audio-visual-narrative packaging that surrounds it makes for an obvious winner. What's a better analogue of the platformer genre than the process of climbing a mountain? Slow, methodical persistence and a good bit of self-trust leads to mastery. One of the greats.